Chapter 9: Prodigal Son
(Last Year…while juggling time with the Teen Titans and Gotham)
"Barbra!" Dick pounded his fists against the solid pane of ice separating them, "Hold on! Barbra!" The section of the hall Robin was sealed in was too small for him to utilize his explosives. Thinking quickly he took a Batarang and carved an "X" into the thick ice. He then grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall and slammed it, once…twice…over and over again on the "X."
How could he have been so stupid! Having let his emotions blind him, Robin had run into Mr. Freeze's artic lair without a plan and ahead of Batman. Becoming aware of Robin's and thus Batman's presence, Mr. Freeze had sealed Robin in the section of the hallway he was in now and had sent his cronies out to search for Batman. From here he could look down and see Barbra and Mr. Freeze in the operating room. Artic water outlined the operating area. One could only get to the area from one of four sets of stairs, one on each side of the rectangular room, that spanned over this artic moat.
Damn! If Robin had been a couple more yards faster and he could have been on the flight of stairs just beyond this corridor that led down to where they were.
This was all his fault! First, Barbra had been kidnapped right in front of him while they were out on a date, a real date for once. Now, because of his stupid emotions Batman and he may not be able to stop Victor Freeze from cutting Barbra open for her organs.
Fine, white cracks in spider web patterns began to form on the surface of the ice wall. However, the wall still held fast like a sheet of stone.
Wooosh! All of the sudden, gallons of ice cold water emptied out on top of Robin, filling the hall to the ceiling! Robin lost his grip on the fire extinguisher as the water pushed him flat against the floor.
"Why are you doing this?" Strapped to an operating table of ice, Barbra blinked sedately as the anesthetic began to take effect.
"I'm sorry Miss. Gordon. But you must understand," Mr. Freeze's monotone voice was slightly distorted by the microphone in his suit, "This is nothing personal. I am merely doing this for the very same reason that young boy up there is beating his hands bloody for you," he nodded his glass domed helmet toward Robin who was slamming his fists against the wall again, despite being submerged in ice water. The cold and the water slowed the speed and power of his fists considerably. He was growing numb and weak…
"I love my wife, Miss Gordon," Mr. Freeze's red goggles glistened as he continued, "and I'm afraid that love makes you do strange and, even, unspeakable things. Your sacrifice will indefinitely save Nora, my wife." He removed the surgical blanket that covered her bare body. Batgirl shivered.
Crack! Pah! Two parka clad henchmen flew across Robin's view followed by the Dark Knight. Dick paused for a moment, trying to keep his last gulp of air from escaping his lungs. Bruce glanced over at Dick, who pounded once with his fist as if to say, "Come on! Let me out!"
Batman just turned and swooped down on Victor Freeze, dodging Freeze's ice ray gun. He proceeded to fight Mr. Freeze alone. Damn you, Bruce!
Wham! After trading a couple blows, Mr. Freeze kicked Batman square in the chest, sending him sliding across the floor, "You must stop meddling in my affairs, Batman!" Batman jumped back up and flipped up onto a second set of steps across from Robin's view in hopes of swooping down on Freeze, again.
"Stay put!" Mr. Freeze raised his ice ray gun and froze Batman's feet to the ground. "Now you will witness my happiness, Batman…you will witness a miracle," Mr. Freeze turned back to Barbara and picked a scalpel up from a tray by the operating table.
Then, just as he was about to make the first incision between her breasts…Bang! With his last breath, Robin had positioned the fire extinguisher back from the pane of ice and had struck it just right so that the pressure released from the extinguisher forcefully propelled it against the "X" in the wall. The spider web cracks in the ice grew and spread in a jerky pattern across the entire wall. Suddenly, the weakened wall gave way, releasing a tidal wave of water across the operating area.
"Ahhh!" Mr. Freeze's eyes widened as he was swept off the floor and into the artic water that surrounded the operating area. Batman gasped as he watched the water wash over Barbra. The water was not high enough to touch him. "Barbra!" he screamed. With a quick twist he managed to shatter the ice that bond his feet to the ground.
By the time Batman was completely free, the water was clear from the operating table. He jumped down to see Robin, though shivering uncontrollably, get up from the floor and try to give Barbra mouth to mouth. Hair dripping with water, he eventually collapsed across her, hugging her naked body. "I'm sorry," he kissed her with quivering blue lips and slid down, shivering on the ice floor, "I can't save you…I'm so sorry." Salty water streamed down his cheeks.
Robin peered up at Batman who stepped up to the table and proceeded to breathe life back into Barbra's lungs.
Barbra gurgled and coughed, "Bruce…" She opened her eyes and smiled weakly as he undid her bindings and draped his thermal cape over her bare body. He lifted her up off the table and glanced down at the shivering and chattering boy on the ground. To this day Robin didn't know what to make of that look. Disappointment? Distain?Anger? Hate?
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Dick shivered, his body felt as cold as ice, like that night in Dr. Freeze's lair.
"Don't worry, my darling," in his dream, a woman, warm and radiant, wrapped her arms around him, "I have you. I have you my darling." She sounded like Barbra, but when Robin looked up at her with somber eyes, he found that it was…
"Raven," he whispered as he came out of the dream. A familiar ceiling loomed above his head. There was a picture of a knight facing a dragon painted on it. Gold paint highlighted the knight's armor and the fire that spewed out of the dragon's mouth. Robin was back in his old room at the Manor.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Master Dick," Alfred came up to the bedside, "but it is only I, the old but dashing British butler."
"Alfred," Robin smiled, then grimaced as he tried to sit up. Pain shot through his arm and up and down his body.
"Easy now," Alfred adjusted the pillows behind Dick, "you've been in and out of consciousness for quite a bit, sir. About three days, now, I believe."
"That long huh?"
"How do you feel?" Alfred inspected the dressing of Robin's wounds and the cast on his right arm.
Robin chuckled despite the pain, "Like someone broke my arm."
"Yes, "Alfred chuckled, "I'm afraid you won't be doing much crime fighting for a couple months."
"If ever again," Bruce's voice came from the door way, "Alfred, Barbra and I would like to have a word with Dick in private."
"Oh, of course, Master Bruce," Alfred scuffled out of the room.
Clad in a bathrobe and slippers, Bruce walked over to the arched window that over looked Gotham Bay. Barbra trailed hesitantly into the room behind him. She sat at a chair near the door.
"So tell me," Batman spoke to the reflections in the window, "now that you're awake, what exactly have you been up to, Dick?"
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"Let me get this straight," Batman said after Robin had recounted the events from the warehouse with the Akaishuen to his confrontation with Two-Face, "your friend was shot by an unknown assailant who, though you were not certain of the evidence, you assumed was Harvey."
"I didn't assume! I remembered that the shooter had a two-toned face," Robin decided to leave out the part about the vision he had of Raven's memories, "Zucco couldn't have been working alone. You know he's not smart enough to get hold of AI robots like the Akaishuen on his own. Besides, Two-Face and Zucco had worked together in the past, plus they were performing identical heists, Bruce. Both were stealing the same kinds of technological goods from facilities all around Gotham and Jump City and selling them in the same exact fashion. All the so-called evidence pointed to Two-Face as the shooter, Batman"
"So you think that gave you the right to kill Harvey in cold blood?" Bruce whipped around and looked at Dick with eyes a flame, "Harvey was begging for his life, Dick! And you were going to shoot him too…even after you found out that the man he was working for, 'Slade' is most likely your shooter…you were going to kill Harvey."
"Harvey? On a first name basis, huh? So, you've already forgotten that he murdered my parents? And about the 'double gallows?' I don't know if you've noticed or not, Bruce, but your best friend Harvey Dent doesn't exist anymore! It would have been a favor to put him out of his misery!"
A silence fell across the room.
Batman shook his head and looked back out the window. A storm was beginning to roll in over Gotham, "You shouldn't have come back, Dick. There's a reason why I like to work alone."
"Somehow, Bruce," Dick looked directly at Batgirl sitting in the chair next to the door, "I highly doubt you'd work alone." Barbra looked away at something non existent on the floor.
"Don't act so innocent yourself," Barbra spoke to the carpet, "I know all about your dates with what's her name? Starfire?"
Dick's eyes hardened, "Those were just…" Robin trailed off. How did she know? He really wasn't sure what to make of his outings with Starfire and only Starfire. Had he hoped for something during the time he was with her? But he never touched Star, never kissed her; even though, he had wanted to and came close to kissing her once. But that was a long time ago…before he fell for Barbra.
"Don't talk about something you know nothing about," Dick finally said with anger in his breath. His throat tightened, "You have no idea how much you meant to me, do y—"
"Enough!" Bruce interrupted the quarrel, "I'm sorry, Robin. But this isn't working anymore. As soon as you're well enough, I want you out of here. You're not welcome here, anymore. Go back to your Tower in Jump. We can take care of ourselves here."
"So it's come to this, huh? Just like that, the 'affair' is over." Dick spoke to the foot of his bed and didn't turn to watch them leave.
"I'm serious, Dick. Oh, and one more thing," Bruce stopped in the doorway with his back to Robin, "Leave the Robin costume. It is, after all, Wayne property."
Dick's mouth fell open. He turned his head just in time to see the door shut behind Batman and Batgirl.
Author notes: First, so sad that TT is over (moment of silence)
2nd, I've written this chapter really really late at night, so if I'm missing any words or the wording doesn't make sense or if anything needs improvement, please let me know. Also, FYI the flashback is loosely based off of "Batman and Mr. Freeze: Subzero." Oddly enough I haven't watched that one, yet…what's wrong with me?
Well let me know what you think of this chapter! Should I be more descriptive with my writing in general? Anyway, thank you to everyone who's still reading and commenting! It really encourages me to get more writing done and continue the story! (it is headed somewhere, trust me….hehehe ).